We ratified the opening proposal. Now what?

April 10, 2012

At the end of August 2012, the Alberta Teachers’ Association’s 62 collective agreements will expire. In fact, as of January, some bargaining units can open their collective agreements and enter into negotiations.

As a service to members, the ATA’s Teacher Welfare program area has prepared a series of articles to assist members during the bargaining process. The following articles published in the ATA News to date are posted online (www.teachers.ab.ca):

The bargaining process is embedded in the Labour Relations Code and your collective agreement. Ratification of the opening proposal is the first formal step in the bargaining process. Once your proposal has been ratified, it is forwarded to Teacher Welfare. This triggers the next formal step in the process, which is the ATA’s serving notice to commence local bargaining with your school board.

Your representative of the bargaining agent (RBA) and your local Negotiating Subcommittee (NSC) are required to meet with the school board’s bargaining team within 30 days of receipt of the notice to commence bargaining. At the first meeting, the parties exchange their opening proposals, set the ground rules for ­bargaining and select dates for follow-up meetings. Your Economic Policy Committee (EPC) will provide you with an update after the first meeting. From here on, the bargaining process unfolds differently in each local. A series of bargaining meetings will be held, but no template or formula exists for how many meetings will be held or how often. Your EPC will keep you in the loop as the process evolves.

In situations where bargaining moves slowly and the collective agreement expiry date is ­approaching (for example, this year, all 62 collective agreements expire in August), the Labour Relations Code provides for bridging expired collective agreements. Bridging means that as long as bargaining is proceeding, the expired agreement remains in full force and effect until it is replaced by a new agreement or a strike or lockout occurs. The caution here is that bridging does not protect parts of the collective agreement that expire on a specific date independent of the rest of the agreement. For example, a number of agreements feature hours-of-work provisions that are vulnerable to expiry and are sensitive issues that need to be addressed before expiring. As bargaining proceeds, the ­parties are expected to amend their positions, thereby narrowing the differences between them. Ideally, the outcome is a memorandum of agreement (MoA), which is a ­document that the committees believe will be acceptable to their respective stakeholders.

An MoA is considered a settlement once teachers and their school board have accepted it. The NSC reports to the EPC, which reviews the MoA and makes its recommendations. The EPC ensures that you are informed about the strengths and weaknesses of any MoA before you vote at a Bargaining Unit General Meeting (BUGM). The school board ­follows its own procedure for ratification.

Occasionally, an MoA is not achieved through the usual bargaining process because an impasse is reached where parties can no longer amend their respective positions without compromising their bargaining goals. At this point, either party or both parties can formally move the process to the next step and request that an independent mediator be appointed by the government’s Mediation Services.

A mediator uses various techniques to assist the parties in resolving their differences so that an MoA can be reached. When parties can’t resolve their differences, the mediator has a couple of options. The mediator can write recommended terms for settlement, which must be voted on by both parties. If the terms are accepted, then bargaining is settled. If, however, the recommended terms are not accepted by both sides or the mediator believes there’s no chance for a resolution, the mediator will stand back and allow the parties to take whatever steps they feel are appropriate. This triggers a two-week cooling-off period. After the cooling-off period, the parties can request a government-supervised vote for a strike or lockout mandate. Your EPC will arrange BUGMs so that members can have input as to the type of action to be taken.

Remember, despite the complexities of bargaining or any challenges that arise during the bargaining process, the day will come when a collective ­agreement is concluded and life returns to normal.

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